The Improvement Equation
Divide and Conquer
Practise Ideas and Techiques
General Practice Ideas
Things not to do

The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word practise as:

Verb - Perform (an activity) or exercise (a skill) repeatedly in order to improve or maintain proficiency in it.

Practice is about using repetition of specific practice techniques in order make improvement. Many students think they are “practicing” by just playing through their music, this is not really practicing, it’s playing. Playing is not practising. Practising enables you to play, not the other way round. Practising is the process of making improvements, step by step, so you can play. The key to practicing is to develop an awareness of what you are doing and having a set of ideas and techniques to use when practicing. Above all, you must always be thinking and aware of what you are doing and of ways to improve.

The Improvement Equation

Practising for improvement can be expressed in an equation

Thinking + Awareness+ Practice Techniques+ Repetition = Improvement

Always aim to practise to improve. Use your time wisely

When you practise, do it with your full attention. The more can you concentrate, the better your practice will be. No one has unlimited time to practise, so you must make the best use of your time. It is too easy to waste time when practicing by playing through your pieces without thinking or doing anything to improve them. Always aim to focus your attention on your practice so that your time is highly productive.

Divide and Conquer

To be highly productive in your practice, it is best to Divide and Conquer. This means dividing the music up into its different elements and then conquering each one individually. Because it is difficult to take in all the musical elements at once, it is best to methodically go through each one individually and determine what the problem is and then work to improve it. When practicing, pretend your playing is a patient and you are a doctor. The doctor must diagnose what’s wrong with the patient and then prescribe the appropriate medicine.

After hearing a piece of music, the doctor (you) has to determine if there is something wrong with any of the patient’s following elements……..
1. Rhythm
2. Beat
3. Meter (the order of strong and weak beats eg. 12341234123412341234...
4. Notes
5. Intonation (tuning –are you flat or sharp)
6. Articulation (the way the notes start)
7. Dynamics (louds & softs)
8. Tempo (speed)
9. Tone quality
10.Phrasing

Once the doctor (you) has diagnosed exactly what’s wrong with the patient (the music), the doctor then prescribes some medicine to make it better.

Practice Ideas and Techiques

In the following information you will find techniques and ideas (the medicine) that you can use when practicing. If you use them, they will make your practice easier, more productive and more satisfying. Used consistently and effectively, these ideas and techniques will guarantee your success. It is not always possible to use all these ideas and techniques all of the time. Think of them as tools in a toolkit – use the appropriate tool for the appropriate job, sometimes one tool will do the job and at other times you’ll need to use them all.

The practice ideas and techniques will help you slow down the whole practicing process, which will allow you to be more aware of what you are doing. The more aware you are, the better your practice, the greater your improvement.

1. Rhythm (use a metronome at all these ideas)
Theses practice ideas will help you to learn and perform the rhythm independent of the melody – very important!

- Clap the rhythm while tapping your foot to the beat
- Say the rhythm (to “da”) while clapping the beat and tapping both feet
- Play the rhythm on the same note on your instrument & tap your feet
- Play the music and tap your foot to the beat
- Play the music while “marching” to the beat on the spot or around the room
- Clap a bar at a time
- Notice repeated rhythmic patterns
- Half the speed
- Count in the next rhythmic subdivision down eg. if the tempo is crotchets/quarter notes = 80, play with the metronome set to quavers/eighth notes = 160 (which is the same as crotchets/quarter notes = 80)

2. Beat
- Practise tapping your foot to the metronome beat and to any music
- Play the music and tap your foot to the beat
- Play the music while “marching” to the beat on the spot or around the room

3. Meter
- Clap the rhythm, strongly emphasising the first beat
- Play the music over- emphasising the first beat of each bar
- Say the meter eg. if the piece is in 2 time, say 1212121212... or in 3 time say 123123123123123..., strongly emphasising the “1”. By doing this you will get the “feel” of the meter, which will then be reflected in your playing

4. Notes
- Say the note names – if you are unsure of the notes - say their note names aloud eg A or B or C or D or E or F or G. This will help you determine the right notes to play
- Say – Play Game – Say the note name then play the note. This slows the process down so you have time to think about what you are doing
- Play the notes without the rhythm i.e. 1 beat per note
- Getting slower and slower
· First play 1 beat per note, then 2 beats per note, then 3 beats per note, then beats 4 per note and so on
- Forwards and backwards – Play a section forwards and then backwards
- Eliminate the articulation – play all slurred
- Apply different rhythms to the section – see Practice Ideas in Downloads

5. Intonation
- Check your instrument’s intonation (tuning) by tuning with another instrument (make sure that, the tuning instrument is in tune – very important!) such as a piano or an electronic keyboard.
- Tune to an electronic tuner
- Soft reeds will play flat, so make sure that your reed is in good shape. It is likely that if you have been using a reed for a long time, it will play flat
- Your instrument itself maybe out of tune – get your teacher to check this - if so, upgrade your instrument

6. Articulation (Tonguing & Slurring)
- First look at the articulation on the music without playing, noticing what the articulation is asking you to do
- Play the music concentrating on the correct articulation
- Beat to Beat practise with the correct articulation
- Practise the Music Factory Articulations – go to Downloads

7. Dynamics
- Exaggerate the dynamics – play the louds very loudly and the softs very softly.
- Exaggerate the differences between the dynamics
- Play the piece with no dynamics and then with dynamics and notice the contrast
- Listen out for the dynamics on a recording (warning – recordings tend to compress dynamics so the louds aren’t quite as loud as they actually are and the softs aren’t quite as soft as they actually are)

8. Tempo (speed)
- Always use a metronome
- Slow Tempos - set the metronome to quavers/eighth notes rather than crotchets/quarter notes - so if the metronome marking is crotchets/quarter notes = 50, play with the metronome on quavers/eighth notes = 100. This will help you keep time more accurately, as the margin of error is greatly reduced
- Fast Tempos –The ability to play at a fast tempo can be developed by setting the metronome to a slower tempo and gradually, notch by notch, increase the tempo until you can play it up to speed eg. if the required tempo is crotchets/quarter notes = 120, start at 60, then go to 63, then to 66, then to 69, then to 72 and so on until you reach 120. Another method is to go up 2 notches and then back 1 and repeat this process until you reach the required tempo eg, the metronome patterns would be - 60 63 66 – 63 66 69 – 66 69 72 –69 72 76 – 72 76 80 and so on
- All the Music Factory Practice Ideas & Techniques (find them in the Downloads) can be used to develop fast playing
- Practising scales will develop your ability to play fast- use Music Factory Practice Ideas & Techniques (find them in the Downloads)
- Play along with a recording – this helps you stay up with the rest of the “band”, as they don’t stop!

9. Tone Quality
- Develop a Tonal Concept of your instrument (this means knowing what the instrument should sound like) – Do this by listening to lots of recordings of the world’s greatest players of your instrument
- Lots and lots of long notes – very loud ones, very soft ones and all the shades in between, crescendos and decrescendos
- Make sure your instrument is in good working order – if it’s not it will be impossible to achieve the best tone
- Mouthpieces and ligatures (on reed instruments) have an enormous effect on the quality of the tone, so make sure you’ve got good ones.
- The quality of the reed, on a reed instrument, and the quality of the strings on a string instrument make an enormous difference – get the best
- The quality of the instrument will determine the quality of the tone – again get the best you can possibly afford
- On a reed instrument the strength of the reed will either help or hinder your attempts. Generally a stronger reed will produce a better sound, unless you specifically want the tone quality of a softer reed
- Breath control (for wind players) – develop your breath control

10. Phrasing
- Listen to recordings of the music you are playing, focusing on how the world’s best phrase the music, and then shamelessly copy them
- Study the music to determine where the phrases are
- Mark the phrases into your music with breath marks or phrase marks
- Practice from phrase to phrase, having a gap between each phrase
- Start thinking of the music in phrases
- Sing the phrases
- Aim to play each phrase with meaning and conviction – make the music have an emotional impact

General Practice Ideas

- Rhythms - apply various rhythms to the music
- Getting Slower & Slower – Play each note for 1 beat, then play each note for 2 beats, then play each note for 3 beats, then play each note for 4 beats. Then try the section up to speed
- Beat to Beat – Play from the first note of one beat to the first note of the next beat. Then from the first note of that beat to the first note of the next and so on. The last note is the first note of the next beat
- Bar to Bar – Play from the first note of one bar to the first note of the next bar. Then from the first note of that bar to the first note of the next bar and so on. The last note is the first note of the next bar.
- 2 Bars to 2 Bars – This is the same process as Bar to Bar but in 2 bar segments
- Add - A - Note – Play the first note only, then the first 2 notes, then the first 3 notes, then the first 4 notes, then the first 5 notes and so on until you have played the whole section that you are working on
- Add - A - Note From the End - Play the last note only, then the last 2 notes, then the last 3 notes, then the last 4 notes, then the last 5 notes and so on until you have played the whole section that you are working on
- Add - A - Bar – This is the same as Add - A - Note but you add a bar each time
- Add - A - Bar From the End - This is the same as Add - A - Bar but you start from the end i.e. play the last bar, then the last 2, then the last 3 and so on
- Add - A - Note to each beat – Play the first note of each beat, then the first 2 notes of each beat, then first 3 notes of each beat, then all the notes of each beat
- Invert the direction – if a passage ascends and descends, invert it so you descend and then ascend & visa versa.
- Add - A - Line - Start from last line, then from the last 2 lines, then from the last 3 lines and so on
- Start anywhere
- Phrase to Phrase – Play from phrase to phrase, with a small rest in between
- Breath to Breath – This is the same as the Phrase to Phrase, as you should breath at the end of each phrase

Things not to do

Avoid repeatedly practising from the start of a piece. Often students practise by repeating a piece from the start until they make a mistake, at which point they stop and return to the beginning. Then they will start from the beginning again until they make a mistake. This process can go on for a long time without the student ever fixing the mistake. This is the “bull at the gate” approach and it is a very ineffective way to practise.

Always practise the bits you can’t play

If you always practise the bits you can’t play, you will end up being able to play them, so you won’t need to practise them!

Remember – The more you practise, the more you will enjoy playing